The #LAUSD Closings Prove Americans' Fear Is Out Of Control

The second largest school district in the country was completely shut down on Tuesday due to the threat of a terrorist attack that turned out to be a hoax.

On Tuesday, the Los Angeles United School District was shut down because of a terrorist threat that has since been determined to be nothing but a hoax. Hundreds of thousands of kids were kept from their educations for an entire day while authorities tried to settle the situation and the closing has become a litmus test of sorts revealing just how terrified this country is.

The LAUSD is the second largest school district in the United States (only New York City Department of Education can boast a larger one). It is comprised of over 650,000 students, 37,000 teachers, and 1,000 individual institutions. And every single one of those was shut down completely on Tuesday over a prank.

The hyperbolic reaction that school officials had to this hoax, although in the interest of student and faculty safety, does raise some concerns over the way we react to threats in this country.

No one can argue for even a moment that anything is more important than the safety of students and teachers when threats like this come up but are we really going to shut down entire school districts every time a rebellious student wants to get out of a test?

Are we to become a nation that is ruled by fear with our collective fingers over the hair trigger that when pulled leads to complete panic and the most extreme possible reactions?

We live in dangerous times, that can’t be ignored. But the solution should be that we become more intelligently proactive, not more fearfully reactive.

Because living with this much terror is exactly what those who wish us harm would want.